Stage 2 – Discovery: <\/strong>During this phase, a visitor will start reading a few pages on your website, consume content, and learn more about your company and what you offer.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Stage 3 – Consideration:<\/strong> This is when your visitors will spend more time reading your site, consuming your media, and even joining your email list.<\/p>\n Stage 4 – Conversion: <\/strong>The conversion process can take some time, or it can be quick. This usually depends on what you’re selling, the price point, and how pressing of a problem your products and services solve.<\/p>\n Retention and Relationship building<\/strong><\/p>\n The moment a customer makes a purchase, you’ll want to do everything in your power to ensure they become a customer for the long-run. This includes the quality of your customer service, their satisfaction with the product, and communication post-sale.<\/p>\n If the customer continues to have positive experiences, they’ll stay with you over the long-run. This includes new products you release, ongoing communication, like email, and continue making their lives better through your products and services.<\/p>\n Another way to look at funnels is through the lens of providing a solution to your visitors:<\/p>\n Top of the Funnel (TOFU)<\/a> – <\/strong>Customers are aware of the problem, but not sure what the solution is.<\/p>\n Middle of the Funnel (MOFU) – <\/strong>Educating customers on how to choose the best solution, and what the solutions are.<\/p>\n Bottom of the Funnel (BOFU) – <\/strong>Show why your products or services are the best solutions to their problem.<\/p>\n A digital funnel can be very beneficial to your business. It can benefit your business in the following ways:<\/p>\n Get more targeted leads – <\/strong>With a funnel in place, the users who make it to the end of the funnel will be highly qualified.<\/p>\n Nurture customers for an easier sales experience – <\/strong>When you speak to customers at multiple parts of the funnel, you\u2019ll easily progress them from visitor to customer. A proper funnel is all about providing value, not a hard and direct sales process.<\/p>\n Increased revenue – <\/strong>Most aspects of the digital marketing sales funnel can be automated, which means your business can make more sales with less effort.<\/p>\n It\u2019s no secret that Google loves brands. There is no strict definition of a brand, but instead a variety of factors that contribute to a strong brand, like the appearance of branded searches, brand mentions, and more.<\/p>\n Here are some brand signals:<\/p>\n Another important factor are brand mentions, which include nofollow links<\/strong><\/a>. These can be things like mentions of your brand name online, even without links.<\/p>\n This shows to Google that you have a strong brand that\u2019s featured on relevant authoritative sources online. If people are talking about a brand by name, then it\u2019s probably high-quality.<\/p>\n Overall, having a strong brand means that you\u2019re trusted. People are more likely to click on a search result and consume the information on a page if it\u2019s from a brand they know and follow.<\/p>\n Finally, we have branded search terms<\/strong><\/a>. These are keywords that include a brand name, this includes terms like \u201ccompany name + blog\u201d, \u201cwhat is company name\u201d, and more. If keywords like these have a decent volume, then it suggests to Google that you have a strong brand.<\/p>\n This phase is often referred to as the top of the funnel (tofu) because your goal is to start getting as much traffic as possible.<\/p>\n Your goal is to cast a wide net, get these people to your website, and into your funnel to see what converts and what audience segments respond to you more.<\/p>\n Here are some tips for building your brand:<\/p>\n The different stages of your funnel will speak to different aspects of your target audience<\/strong><\/a>. The further your audience moves down your funnel, the more narrow your targeting will get.<\/p>\n For example, if you have a website in the pet space, your top of the funnel will attract pet owners, or maybe even animal lovers in general.<\/p>\n The further they move down the funnel, the more specific this will get. Maybe they start consuming information on your site about grooming for dogs, which narrows down to their specific dog breed, then finally grooming tools specifically created for their dog and the problem they\u2019re experiencing.<\/p>\n Here are some additional ways to segment your audience for more targeted marketing:<\/p>\n You\u2019ll want to set your marketing goals before you start setting up your marketing funnels. There are all kinds of different types of funnels you can create for different purposes.<\/p>\n A funnel for an eCommerce store whose goal is to boost product sales with paid ads will be different than a sales funnel for a course creator who is using long-form content to attract email subscribers and make a sale down the road.<\/p>\n The general process will remain the same, but the specifics will differ.<\/p>\n Here are some examples of common marketing goals:<\/p>\n Unless you have a single product and a simple one-product sales page you\u2019re probably going to have multiple conversion funnels in place.<\/p>\n If you have multiple goals you\u2019re trying to achieve, then you\u2019ll have different conversion funnels set up to help you reach these goals.<\/p>\n For example, you may have one funnel dedicated to getting more email subscribers<\/strong><\/a>, another funnel where the goal is more sales, an email funnel that sells a high-ticket product, and more.<\/p>\n Here are a few examples of different kinds of funnels you can have running together:<\/p>\n As you can see, there are all kinds of different conversion funnels you can create. These are based on the type of content assets you have\/want to create and your ultimate goal.<\/p>\n Generally, you\u2019ll have multiple funnels running at the same time and will be testing different funnels to see what converts the best.<\/p>\n Now that you have a better understanding of how digital marketing sales funnels work, and the various audience types you\u2019re targeting, let\u2019s look at how different types of content will fit into your funnel.<\/p>\n The attraction phase is at the top of your funnel (TOFU).<\/p>\n This is where you\u2019ll be bringing people into your world. A lot of content during this stage is about generating awareness for your brand. For most people coming into your funnel at this stage, it\u2019ll be one of the first times hearing about your brand.<\/p>\n In this stage, people are beginning to engage and interact with your brand.<\/p>\n Here are some content types associated with this stage:<\/p>\n In this stage, people are starting to really engage with your brand. Usually, this involves consuming a lot of your content, emails, and other media content like video.<\/p>\n The engagement stage also has some overlap with the attraction stage. For example, by ranking high in the search engines with your blog posts you\u2019ll be generating traffic to your website. But, blog posts will also be solving your visitor’s problems and providing a ton of value.<\/p>\n Here are some content types popular in the engagement stage:<\/p>\n In this stage, your visitors will already be familiar with who you are and will be deciding whether or not to purchase your products or services.<\/p>\n Depending on your niche the initial sale might not happen right away. For example, a subscriber could join your email list, consume your daily or weekly emails, and finally turn into a customer six months later.<\/p>\n Ultimately, making a sale isn\u2019t as important as forming a long-term relationship.<\/p>\n Content that\u2019ll help you make a sale includes:<\/p>\n If you sell a physical product or even have a SaaS product, you can offer a free trial, free sample, or a live demo of your product. This is going to be one of the last steps of the conversion process.<\/p>\n After the free trial, sample, or demo they\u2019ll either buy or won\u2019t.<\/p>\n The final stage is the relationship-building stage. Ideally, you\u2019ll already have built a solid relationship before they decide to buy, but now it\u2019s time to deepen that relationship.<\/p>\n There are a variety of ways to delight your customers:<\/p>\n There\u2019s a nearly endless amount of approaches you can take to reach your target audience. The methods you use will depend upon who your target audience is, where they spend time online, and what your budget is.<\/p>\n Here are some of the different marketing channels you can use to reach your audience:<\/p>\n Search Engine Optimization (SEO).<\/strong> Attract new visitors to your site by ranking high-quality content in the search engines.<\/p>\n Search Engine Marketing (SEM).<\/strong> Run ads that appear above the search results and send traffic to a landing page.<\/p>\n Paid Social Media Ads. <\/strong>Run ads across Facebook. Instagram, Pinterest, and more.<\/p>\n Organic Social Media.<\/strong> Post creative content to your social media accounts with a link back to your website in your bio.<\/p>\n Your sales funnel will be constantly evolving. To measure the success of your sales funnels you\u2019ll wan<\/p>\n For example, how many people join your email list after clicking on an Instagram ad? Or, how long are people on your email list before they purchase a product? The only way to answer these questions, and more, is to analyze your data.<\/p>\n As you look over your data you can optimize your funnels to convert better.<\/p>\n The best way to optimize your sales funnel is to start at the top and work your way to the bottom.<\/p>\n For example, if you\u2019re creating content like paid ads, videos, or blog posts you can experiment to see what works until you start getting traffic.<\/p>\n Then, you can move onto your landing pages or opt-in pages and test different elements of these pages including:<\/p>\n Finally, you can move onto your offer. Does a discount work better than a free trial? Does free shipping improve your conversion rate?<\/p>\n Making little adjustments can mean huge improvements in your revenue. You\u2019ll eventually reach a point where your funnel is as good as it can be, but in the beginning, you\u2019ll be going through a lot of testing and experimentation.<\/p>\n You\u2019ll want to analyze each stage and see which stages convert the best and the worst, so you can plug any holes in your funnel.<\/p>\n One very important metric to track is your customer retention rate. This is the percentage of people that stay with you over the long-term and continue to buy your products and services. Making a single sale doesn\u2019t mean the funnel is over.<\/p>\n With a low retention rate, you\u2019ll constantly have to generate new leads just to keep your business afloat. However, with a high retention rate, you can focus less on traffic and lead generation and more on serving your existing customers.<\/p>\n Here are a few ways you can improve customer retention:<\/p>\n The happier you keep your customers the more likely they\u2019ll buy from you a second, third, fourth, time. You can also turn customers into advocates who recommend your business to others.<\/p>\n There are all kinds of digital marketing sales funnels you can run.<\/p>\n No matter your end goal, here are a few metrics you\u2019ll want to keep track of:<\/p>\n Here\u2019s an example of a digital marketing funnel for an eCommerce store that sells custom photography prints<\/strong><\/a>:<\/p>\n Here\u2019s an example of a funnel for a photographer selling an online photography course:<\/p>\n As you can see, no matter what you\u2019re selling or the platforms you want to use to market yourself, there are several different digital marketing funnels you can build.<\/p>\n For most business owners, you\u2019ll have multiple funnels running at the same time, which you can continuously tweak and optimize for the best results.<\/p>\n By now you have an in-depth understanding of how you can build a digital marketing sales funnel from scratch.<\/p>\n Visitors will first come into your funnel in the awareness stage, usually via social media, blog posts, or paid advertising.<\/p>\n As they consume your content or join your email list, they\u2019ll learn more about your offerings.<\/p>\n Once they\u2019re done researching and you\u2019ve built up trust these prospects will convert into customers.<\/p>\n Then, it\u2019s up to you to deepen this relationship and delight your customers enough to retain them for the long-run.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a lot that goes into each stage of the process, but here\u2019s a quick recap on the steps you\u2019ll take to build your funnel:<\/p>\n Creating a digital marketing funnel is an ongoing process, but one that can transform your business in the long-term.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A digital marketing sales funnel can help your business run more efficiently, and simplify the process of turning new visitors into lifelong customers. 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Why is a Digital Funnel Important?<\/h2>\n
How to Create a Powerful Digital Marketing Funnel<\/h2>\n
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1. Build brand awareness<\/h3>\n
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2. Identify your target audience for each of the funnel stages<\/h3>\n
![\"Target](\"https:\/\/www.reliablesoft.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/primary-secondary-target-market.png\")
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3. Set your marketing goals<\/h3>\n
![\"digital](\"https:\/\/www.reliablesoft.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/digital-marketing-goals-example.png\")
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4. Setup different conversion funnels for each goal<\/h3>\n
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5. Create targeted content for all stages of the funnel<\/h3>\n
Attraction stage (TOFU)<\/h4>\n
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Engagement stage (MOFU)<\/h4>\n
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Decision-making stage (BOFU)<\/h4>\n
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Relationship building stage<\/h4>\n
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6. Use different marketing channels to reach your audience<\/h3>\n
7. Measure the results and optimize your funnels<\/h3>\n
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8. Pay attention to customer retention<\/h3>\n
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Examples of Digital Marketing Sales Funnel<\/h2>\n
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Digital Marketing Funnel Example for an eCommerce Website<\/h3>\n
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Digital Marketing Funnel Example for an Online Course Provider<\/h3>\n
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Key Learnings<\/h2>\n
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